The present invention relates to a dual thickness carbon overcoat structure for protecting the medium-confronting surface of a transducer carrying structure, in which the overcoat has a first thickness in a region of the structure where the transducer is carried, and has a second thickness greater than the first thickness in other regions of the structure.
In disc drives and other transducing systems, a transducer is carried by a structure adjacent to a storage medium. Over time, operation of the system can cause wear of the surface of the structure that confronts the storage medium, which is undesirable for a number of reasons. In order to protect the structure against wear, an overcoat (formed with a relatively thin layer of material such as carbon) is provided on the surface of the structure confronting the storage medium.
Traditionally, increases in wear robustness have been achieved by increasing the overcoat thickness everywhere on the medium-confronting surface of the transducer carrying structure, including the region of the structure that carries the transducer. However, this improvement in wear robustness comes at the expense of increased spacing between the transducer and the medium due to the thicker protective layer, which is undesirable in many applications.
It would be useful in the art to provide additional protection against wear without increasing the spacing between the transducer and the medium.